Nigerian Oil Threat

While the fur has been flying on financial markets, the bullets have been flying in the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta news didn't make many headlines last week, but the conflict there continues to be a major drag on oil supplies -- and with the Nigerian government in disarray, there's no end in sight.

The usually accurate spokesperson for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) reported in an e-mail that there had been several new attacks on oil facilities last week. On Friday, Royal Dutch Shell acknowledged that an "upsurge" of attacks had taken place and that earnings would take a hit as a result.

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Posted by Steven Mufson on September 22, 2008 12:42 PM

Nigerian Militant Speaks Out on Oil

Today I received a "Hello Steve" letter from a representative of the Nigerian militant group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). This is the group -- or more likely umbrella of local gangs and groups -- that has been blowing up pipelines and terminals and occasionally kidnapping expatriate oil workers in Nigeria in an effort to wring more oil revenue for impoverished local inhabitants. (For more background, here’s a Post story on the long-running Nigerian insurgency.)

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Posted by Steven Mufson on May 6, 2008 4:36 PM